If this article makes ya wanna spew…
The politicization of the church is, in my opinion, the single greatest mistake in all of church history. States abuse their power, and if you have politicians claiming, “This is GAWD’s Nation!” while doing it, or worse, committing atrocities in the name of God, what message does that send about God? Most politicians are politically motivated. Take Constantine, he used Christ as a driving force for his military campaigns. Everyone on his opponent’s side who survived the battle therefore would be opposed to the God who conquered them. Or take the United States in the 1800s, when it slaughtered and displaced thousands of native inhabitants across a large portion of the North American continent in the name of “Manifest Destiny.” What does that say to the native people of North America? God’s hand is against you and upholding your white conquerors and oppressors. Sucks for you. We say “God bless America!” and claim this to be a Christian nation even when we torture prisoners and politically condone any sort of immoral lifestyle from divorce to sexual promiscuity to greed and self-centeredness.
Now, give me one instance where Jesus remotely condoned the use of force by his believers (or, if you’re feeling ambitious, immoral living). When he tells his disciples to equip themselves with swords? That was to fulfill prophecy (Luke 22:36-37). Jesus turned around and lambasted Peter for using a sword immediately after telling him to equip himself. You do see this expressed by Jesus though: pray for your enemies, turn the other cheek, and do not resist a man who does evil to you.
Now, the state obviously exists as a norming force against evil and doles out punishment and maintains a military presence to ensure the safety of its inhabitants. Nothing in scripture disputes or challenges this. This is the given role of the state. And, America has done it as fairly and as up-right as any nation. However, the role of the church is to act as Christ’s messenger, bringing the good news of the advent of the kingdom of God; the kingdom of God! Wait, our citizenship isn’t earthly?! That means that our allegiances aren’t temporal, and our interaction with the state is to demonstrate the superiority of our kingdom. The church and the state are on two different spheres, and any attempt to overlap them, apart from some pretty sketchy Old Testament theology, cannot be justified by scriptures. I’ll leave you with a reference to 1 Samuel 8:6-9 and a general reference to Solomon’s 1000 wives and concubines and our dear Billy Clinton, and I’ll bid you good night and God bless.
Aaron
One of the challenges of processing faith for us as citizens of the US is that the New Testament was instruction and stories for a people in the minority. Christians were nowhere near a majority, let alone a ruling class in the Roman empire during the first century.
So it’s tough to figure what to do in a democratic nation where every one has a voice and with people claiming Christianity holding a majority of votes. Although this is quickly changing, we have to process issues of what it means to love and care for our neighbors, to use our power for those we disagree with, etc.
I’ll add the World Wars of the 1900s to the list to further confusion of the idea of God being with a country. In both those cases, we had countries affiliated with specific churches waging war on each other. You would think with that many Christians, maybe somebody would have asked why we waging war on each other. Ultimately I think the answer lies in the idea of allegiance which you alluded to. But how that’s played out, that’s a question on which countless pages can be written.